WIRELESS DIRECTION FINDER.

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 1, 1 July 1922, Page 12

WIRELESS DIRECTION FINDER.

A ship's deck was fitted up in a, London hotel recently to show the tfaerifcs of a new wireless direction finder, This latest development, of. . Radio-Company's equipment enables a captain to .steer his ship without the guidahee of sun or lighthouses. Except for the mathematical side of nuvigatidn, he could steel the vessel blindfold. In a corner of the room, Which had.been turned into.a complete oceangoing: wireless establishment; tho working of this direction' finder was shown; There is a revolving box aerial, above the deck of the ship, two windings of thin,wire being, fixed oil the frame at right angles to each other. This revolves upon a yer-. tical axis. The whole is > mounted oh a vertical telescopic tube, and cbnneoted with a receiving cabinet containing the wireless instruments. It is controlled by switches, and is'really a development of the direction finder first used for aircraft. By its use fog is avoided, the position of other ships is determined, and delays are obviated:.>-. Experts consider it will have a inarked_ bearing on future methods of navigation. . Another ingenious '. idea demonstrated. was an automatic S.O:S: call for Hiss on ships/.,This,'.is done' by. means of.' a selectorI"—a1 "—a box of steel blades controlled by differentiation made in Morse, dots and dashes. "',lt is so arranged ;that, when the. S.O.S. . call is received,>a bell, or. syfbn, sounds, and'the "Help" indicator\drop9. Trials have been made across, the vAtlantic in a steamer fitted with the device. On the first voyage all calls were received, and no false alarms given. Operations can be carried out over a radius of 400 miles. ' .